“As The New York Times reported Sunday, the University of Washington computer science and engineering program – with substantial assistance from corporations such as Microsoft and Amazon and individuals such as Bill Gates and Paul Allen – has become the seventh-ranked graduate program in the country …

“Recently, the program scooped up hot new faculty members from Carnegie Mellon, Penn and Stanford – with the aid of professorships newly endowed by Amazon.

“And the state, which had been battering the university in the past few years of budget crisis, left the UW budget intact this round – on condition that the university increase the engineering program’s budget by $3.8 million.”